Vietnam earmarks $540m for new coast guard fleet

In anticipation of further maritime disputes with China, Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, has announced that the government will spend $540 million to build 32 patrol ships for its coast guard, according to China’s Global Times on July 8.

Nguyen apparently made his decision after a Vietnamese fishing boat with a crew of six was seized by a Chinese maritime security vessel on July 3. The standoff between two nations’ patrol vessels and fishing boats has been going on since May, when China National Offshore Oil Corporation deployed the oil platform Haiyang Shiyou 981 off the disputed Paracel islands, prompting violent anti-China protests in Vietnam.

To avoid a direct confrontation with the People’s Liberation Army, the Vietnamese government established its first Directorate of Fisheries in 2013 to conduct irregular operations against Chinese vessels, Teng Jianqun, a researcher with the Beijing-based China Institute of International Studies, told China’s state broadcaster CCTV. A confrontation between coast guard vessels of the two nations is likely to take place before a clash between their armed forces.

Vietnam currently has only 40 patrol ships, Teng said in the CCTV interview, and for this reason needs a bigger coast guard fleet to watch over its territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea.

In anticipation of further maritime disputes with China, Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, has announced that the government will spend $540 million to build 32 patrol ships for its coast guard, according to China’s Global Times on July 8.

Nguyen apparently made his decision after a Vietnamese fishing boat with a crew of six was seized by a Chinese maritime security vessel on July 3. The standoff between two nations’ patrol vessels and fishing boats has been going on since May, when China National Offshore Oil Corporation deployed the oil platform Haiyang Shiyou 981 off the disputed Paracel islands, prompting violent anti-China protests in Vietnam.

To avoid a direct confrontation with the People’s Liberation Army, the Vietnamese government established its first Directorate of Fisheries in 2013 to conduct irregular operations against Chinese vessels, Teng Jianqun, a researcher with the Beijing-based China Institute of International Studies, told China’s state broadcaster CCTV. A confrontation between coast guard vessels of the two nations is likely to take place before a clash between their armed forces.

Vietnam currently has only 40 patrol ships, Teng said in the CCTV interview, and for this reason needs a bigger coast guard fleet to watch over its territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea.